Chapter 171 – Pursuit (6)

The stage prepared for the performance was extremely chaotic.

The mage who had been outmaneuvered by Sun-woo was in a state of exhaustion due to depleted mana, and the ordinary person who had been hosting while brainwashed had fainted on the spot.

However, the blond man was in the process of strangling the chairman behind the stage.

Swoooosh!

A sword shot toward the blond man at tremendous speed.

It was a sword that Sun-woo, who was flying onto the stage, hurriedly threw.

Though it was an incredibly fast-flying sword, the blond man once again noticed the sword coming.

He abandoned the chairman and hastily dodged.

Thud!

However, the sword Sun-woo threw was different from the bullet Mingwei shot.

Though it was a sword that flew as fast as a bullet, it curved in the direction the man dodged and subsequently blew off one of the man’s arms.

“Shit!”

The man whose arm was severed cursed profusely and tried to run toward the back of the stage while holding his arm.

However, Sun-woo’s sword that had cut off his arm flew toward him again.

He threw his body backward and barely managed to avoid the sword.

“Crazy! What kind of sword flies around on its own!”

“You’re even more amazing for dodging such a sword without knowing martial arts.”

The man was startled by the voice coming from behind and turned his head.

He could see Sun-woo, who had already climbed onto the stage and was standing behind him.

The overly shocked man hastily retreated backward, but Sun-woo looked at him intently and flicked his hand to the side.

The coin that left Sun-woo’s hand pierced through the head of the mage who had run out of mana.

“An ability to sense killing intent? Or short-term precognition?”

The moment Sun-woo decided to attack the blond man, the man dodged backward.

The blond man flinched in surprise the moment Sun-woo mentioned short-term precognition.

It was the correct answer.

Short-term precognition, a superpower that sees the future a few seconds ahead, was a very good ability for Sun-woo as well.

However, now that leveling up and adding skill windows were blocked, it was just pie in the sky.

Sun-woo raised his fist toward him, and the man looked at Sun-woo blankly with a face fallen into despair.

In none of the futures he saw was there a way to avoid Sun-woo’s attack.

Though he could see the future a few seconds ahead, there was no way to avoid the movements of a transcendent master.

Thud!

Sun-woo’s palm tapped his head, and the man quietly collapsed.

The energy that escaped from Sun-woo’s palm had torn through his brain.

Fortunately, Chairman Douglas was safe. There were no traces of contamination, and he was simply unconscious.

Sun-woo immediately placed his hand on the chairman’s body and traced through his memories.

“As expected, he’s not completely fine.”

Unfortunately, the chairman was also in a brainwashed state.

He had been brainwashed and revealed all of the association’s secrets, and they were trying to execute him for entertainment since he was no longer useful.

Still, Chairman Douglas seemed to have achieved his goal.

The chairman had been dragged to the enemy’s headquarters. Of course, he was dragged there by spatial movement, but it was possible to roughly estimate where.

“Can ordinary sixth sense be utilized this way when taken to the extreme?”

Chairman Douglas possessed the <Sixth Sense> ability that many summoners with mercenary backgrounds have.

He had lived as a summoner for a very long time and had developed his ability to the maximum.

“The ability to choose the right path… It was my mistake to underestimate such a common ability.”

The ability to avoid crises and choose the advantageous side.

This time too, the chairman had surrendered in the middle of fighting and was dragged to the enemy’s headquarters without dying.

However, unfortunately, this choice did not protect the chairman’s own safety.

Fortunately, he wasn’t contaminated, but he ended up being brainwashed.

As long as he didn’t know a way to break the brainwashing, the chairman was just a dangerous person.

Moreover, the chairman wasn’t the only brainwashed person captured. Even just the people collapsed on this ship numbered in the dozens.

“Well, that’s something the association will handle.”

He was working as a freelancer, albeit formally, because he didn’t want to worry about such things anyway.

Sun-woo sent a sympathetic glance to Mingwei, who was on the phone with the association while checking the collapsed people, then jumped into the passage behind the stage.

There were still many enemies left inside the ship.

***

Antique carpets and old sculptures, and pocket watches that had withstood the passage of time and a fireplace retaining warmth.

The room full of old items must have certainly felt very warm until recently, unlike the snowstorm outside.

However, now, thanks to dozens of monitors installed in the room, the inside also felt very grim.

The monitors were showing various locations of a huge ship.

A huge engine room, control room, and the corridor and the deck where many people had collapsed.

All were views of the giant cruise ship, Gold of the Seas.

Originally, all the monitors should have been showing images, but now several monitors were not displaying any video.

Thud!

Another screen went out.

“Really impressive.”

A soft, enchanting voice echoed through the room.

It was the voice of the only woman among the three people in the room.

She was a beautiful woman with blonde hair.

Her half-closed enchanting eyes and her lips closed as if bored looked as if anyone who saw her would lose their senses.

While sitting on one man’s lap wearing an elegant red dress that revealed her silhouette, she was watching the monitor next to the one that had just gone out.

Unlike other monitors, that monitor was flashing with dazzling lights.

The monitor was showing a long corridor with guest rooms on both sides.

Since it was a cruise ship, the corridor was quite wide, and fireballs and electric magic were crossing over the corridor.

The magic was being shot out by mages in black robes hiding in guest rooms visible at the bottom of the screen.

Like people driven by something, they desperately shot magic toward the opposite side of the corridor, and each time, flames and electricity surged at the end of the corridor.

Thanks to the endless magic, it seemed no one could enter the corridor, but instead of a person, something else broke through the flames and jumped into the corridor.

A brightly shining sword.

In the blink of an eye, it crossed the corridor.

As if completely ignoring things like inertia, it turned direction and pierced through two mages hiding inside a guest room.

And the moment the flames became slightly thinner, the figure of a person passing through the corridor was briefly caught on screen.

Thud!

With that scene as the last, this monitor also went out.

“Sword control… Definitely a transcendent level. He was at the peak level until recently, but he’s already at the transcendent level.”

The middle-aged man standing next to the sofa groaned as he watched the screen.

He was nearly 2 meters tall and his entire body seemed packed with muscles, but unlike his body, his face looked very intellectual.

“Hmm, then isn’t his growth much faster than yours? It seems like he’ll surpass you in no time.”

The woman turned her head to look at the man who had her sitting on his lap.

The man showed no particular reaction to her words, but the middle-aged man immediately protested from the side.

“That can’t be. Going beyond the transcendent level takes decades to hundreds of years even for martial artists. It’s impossible for a summoner from our dimension.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

Despite the middle-aged man’s protest, the woman laughed and mocked, and the middle-aged man clicked his tongue quietly and looked at the screen again.

The woman also lost interest when the middle-aged man didn’t take the bait further and turned her gaze to the screen.

Even during their brief conversation, the screens went out one by one in succession.

Now only screens showing the engine room and cargo hold below the ship remained.

“The new weapon the summoners created this time really grew up splendidly. He’s the first man I want to seduce since you.”

“We’ve already decided to eliminate him. Don’t get any other ideas.”

At the middle-aged man’s words, the woman gently waved her hand.

“I know, I know. If he doesn’t come over on his own, I won’t touch him.”

While they conversed, the remaining screens went out in succession. And one remaining screen.

The monitor was showing the cargo hold where a large magic circle was positioned.

Only then did the silent man open his mouth.

“There won’t be time to touch him, nor time for him to change like us.”

At that moment, Sun-woo’s figure appeared next to the magic circle, and the Latin-looking man grasped the switch next to him.

Sun-woo, standing in front of the magic circle, placed his hand on it, and soon looked around at the surrounding cargo with a surprised expression.

“Oh, did he notice? But it’s too late.”

The man immediately pressed the switch, and the explosives that had been disguised as cargo around the magic circle detonated.

Kaboom!

The next moment, the screen turned white and the last monitor also went out.

“He must be dead, right?”

“Even a transcendent martial artist cannot survive this level of firepower.”

At the woman’s question, the middle-aged man nodded as if it were obvious.

The man looked at the darkened screen and smiled faintly.

“It would be interesting if he survives. Was it Korea? Next time, I’ll visit in person.”

His last words lingered in the room where all the monitors had gone out.

***

Kaboom!

With a tremendous explosion, the lower part of the cruise ship burst apart. It was an explosion as if dozens of torpedoes had hit simultaneously.

Tremendous smoke soared up from the ship.

The cruise ship began to sway while making a loud noise.

Though it was thoroughly prepared for sinking befitting a large vessel that cost enormous money, it couldn’t withstand the explosion that destroyed most of the cargo hold.

The ship began tilting little by little.

At that moment, there was someone who suddenly popped up on the sea a bit away from the ship.

“Puha!”

It was Sun-woo, who had been engulfed in the explosion. Fortunately, he was safe.

He had hastily wrapped himself in the newly acquired demonic energy barrier at the moment of the explosion.

Befitting a skill that had blocked the Demon King’s fist, the barrier made of demonic energy protected Sun-woo even under the explosion that destroyed the bottom of the ship.

‘They didn’t catch on, right?’

In any case, it was a skill created from contamination. He didn’t know what would happen if summoners noticed.

‘I’ll think about it when the time comes.’

Though he used it next to the magic circle that hides contamination this time too, it was hard to guarantee he wasn’t discovered since the magic circle was destroyed by the explosion.

“Well, looking at how quiet things have been so far, it should be fine.”

Sun-woo decided to think optimistically. Worrying about getting caught wouldn’t change anything anyway.

Moreover, he had to worry about something else now.

The ship he had been so desperately asked to go easy on was sinking before his eyes.

Fortunately, ships and helicopters were flying from the harbor direction, so the people on the ship seemed to have nothing to worry about, but his notoriety seemed likely to become fact.

“They won’t ask me to compensate for damages, will they?”

The possibility wasn’t 100% that they wouldn’t.

Sun-woo, who was about to go to the ship, gathered the internal energy he had blown away with his skill and began swimming toward the harbor.

It seemed he needed to quickly meet Sophia and fly to Korea.

In any case, he had roughly found out the enemy’s location that the chairman was looking for.

Though he needed to verify it more, this much alone should be enough for the association to confirm the location.

As Sun-woo recovered his internal energy, his body gradually emerged from the water.

Shortly after, Sun-woo began running on the seawater.

The transcendent martial artist’s water-treading technique unfolded in Hong Kong’s waters with the sinking cruise ship as a backdrop.